Feature: Living on the Links

James Y. Bartlett

07/02/2004

There was a time, believe it or not, when golf course communities did not exist. Golf courses were attached to their respective country clubs, which were built, as the name implies, in the countryside—far from the madding crowd. A few cottages occasionally popped up adjacent to a course, but these small clusters of homes were not part of a master-planned community. They were random occurrences, like wildflowers scattered by the wind.

The 3rd hole at the 7,200-yard, Tom Weiskopf–designed course at Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Mont., with the Gallatin Mountains as a backdrop.  (Photo by Jeanine Hennebry, click to enlarge)

Pebble Beach, the renowned golf course and tony community built on California’s Monterey Peninsula in 1919, may have been the nation’s first planned golf community, officially kicking off the golden age of golf course design. With great foresight, project manager Samuel F.B. Morse plotted the course on the stunning property overlooking Stillwater Cove and the beaches of Carmel-by-the-Sea. In 1951, Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., sold its first lots overlooking the golf course. In 1959, developer Charles Fraser carved Hilton Head Island’s Sea Pines Plantation out of the surrounding savannas and marshes in South Carolina, and the concept of the residential golf community took off.

The Snead at the Greenbrier in West Virginia, a private 18-hole course by Tom Fazio, was named for the long-time golf pro.  (Photo by Mike Wyatt, click to enlarge)

Developers across the country followed suit. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, golf-centric resort communities sprang up from New York to Utah, and everywhere in between. The building craze raged through the 1990s and is still on fire, with more than 3,000 golf course communities blanketing the nation. Just type “golf course communities” into an Internet search engine and more than half a million web site links pop up.

From mega golf communities with multiple courses dreamed up by brand-name designers to more-intimate luxury developments anchored by private courses and country clubs, the 21st century is a return to the golden age of golf course—and golf course community—design. But that celebration of golf now comes with more than a caddie and a cocktail served on the 18th hole. Every luxury golf course community boasts an amazing array of high-end amenities that are, to potential home buyers, just as important as the golf course and the surrounding estate-size lots: multimillion-dollar clubhouses with lavish locker rooms, five-star restaurants with white-glove service, equestrian stables and full-time summer camps for kids. Some golf course developments have been known to hire fly-fishing pros to give lessons and hold clinics. Here are our picks of the best.


The Santa Lucia Preserve
One golf community directed at the well-heeled clientele is the Santa Lucia Preserve in Carmel, Calif. About 3 miles inland as the crow flies from Pebble Beach’s famous 18th hole, the development is set amid more than 20,000 mountainous acres of towering redwoods, thick forests, ponds, streams and mountaintop meadows. Amazingly, the property has survived largely intact from its early days as a Spanish ranchero more than 200 years ago. Santa Lucia was once zoned for as many as 6,000 homesites, but the owners decided to deed more than 18,000 acres of the land to a permanent environmental trust and develop just 300 homesites. (Click image to enlarge)

All lots are environmentally engineered; homes must be built on a tight footprint to leave much of the land open and undisturbed for migrating deer, coyotes, wild boar and other wildlife. The result is a community with a sense of purpose—to uphold and respect the landscape’s sense of space. That sensitivity for boundless space extends to the Tom Fazio–designed golf course, which is virtually devoid of bordering homes. For the most part, soaring hawks and the occasional grazing deer are the only company golfers will confront. (Click image to enlarge)

Facts & Stats
The Hacienda clubhouse, built in 1924, provides lodging and dining and offers magnificent views of the Santa Lucia Mountains. If you don’t golf, there are 100 miles of hiking and riding trails, plus all the modern-day amenities of Carmel and Monterey just minutes down the mountain.  (Click image to enlarge)

Santa Lucia is a private club with 300 equity golf memberships. The membership initiation fee is $150,000. Most homesites are sold; some are still available from $1 million. Amenities include an equestrian center, tennis and croquet courts, fitness center and access to Moores Lake for fishing, swimming and canoeing.

The Santa Lucia Preserve
831.626.8200
www.santaluciapreserve.com


The Greenbrier Sporting Club
Located on the grounds of the historic Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., the Greenbrier Sporting Club is a family-oriented, private equity club and luxury residential community.

The Sporting Club, situated among the woodlands, streams and valley fairways of the Allegheny Mountains, will incorporate 500 homesites on the 6,500-acre country estate. The master plan, which reserves 2,000 acres for preservation, revolves around estate homes, fairway and mountain homes, and creek-side cottages (all designs will be reviewed by the club’s architectural review board).  (Photo by Mike Wyatt, click to enlarge)

Members will be able to access the lodge, which doubles as the community center, with a restaurant and private lounges, and the sports complex, complete with squash courts, a full gym, an indoor climbing wall, tennis courts and an infinity-edge pool.

The members-only Tom Fazio–designed par-71, 7,180-yard golf course, named the Snead after the resort’s longtime golf pro Sam Snead, makes the most of the elevation changes, courtesy of the nearby Allegheny foothills.   (Photo by Mike Wyatt, click to enlarge)

Facts & Stats
Greenbrier stands on the site of sulfur springs where, more than 200 years ago, a woman bathed and reportedly was cured of rheumatism. Accommodations began cropping up at the site shortly thereafter to host those interested in testing the spring and its healing powers.

Twenty-six U.S. presidents have stayed here, including James Monroe in 1815. Built in 1835, the Club’s first grand “cottage” is aptly called the President’s Cottage.

Even the most die-hard golfer is sure to succumb to Greenbrier’s nongolfing activities, from kayaking to fly-fishing and horseback riding. Also on-site at the resort are two Olympic-size swimming pools, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, a 30,000-square-foot spa, as well as restaurants, an arcade of 30 shops, a bowling alley and a movie theater. Other amenities include the Land Rover Driving School (for off-road terrain training), the Falconry Academy and the Sam Snead Golf Academy.

The one-time equity membership fee is $110,000. Annual dues are about $7,500.

The 20,000-square-foot members’ lodge, featuring a grand lobby and soaring fireplace, houses a gourmet restaurant and the recently opened Ananda Spa; private guest cottages are located on the grounds. Other members-only amenities include a full-service equestrian facility, a 5,000-acre upland wing shooting preserve and private trout streams.

One- to 15-acre lots are priced from $400,000 to $2.5 million, and are available in seven architecturally distinctive neighborhoods. Nearly half of the 500 lots are sold.

The Greenbrier Sporting Club
888.741.8989
www.thegreenbriersportingclub.com

Whisper Rock
Not everyone craves wide-open spaces with room to roam. Hard-core golfers want a challenging course layout with walk-up-and-play privileges. Whisper Rock, a gated 800-acre community south of Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz., offers just that. The members-only Whisper Rock Golf Club, which claims to have the lowest aggregate handicap of any private club in America, is the first golf course designed by former resident and current Masters champion Phil Mickelson. Golfers call it a pure golf experience since it is a walking course (caddies required) and tee times do not exist—you just walk up and play. And membership is limited to 275 members per 18 holes of golf to guarantee instant access. A second course designed by Tom Fazio, which will also wind among the natural desert terrain, will open by year’s end.

Need proof that the golf is great? Members include several PGA Tour players who live in Phoenix and Scottsdale, including Gary McCord, young English star Paul Casey and Mark Calcavecchia and TV commentator Peter Kostis. (Photo by Lonna Tucker, click to enlarge)

But Whisper Rock affords homeowners more than world-class golf. Space is one luxury addressed by the ample homesites, which range from 1 to more than 5 acres. The larger lots ensure “an extremely low-density environment where the privacy and the beauty offered by the desert will remain intact for all to enjoy,” according to the developer. Social gatherings are another part of Whisper Rock’s offerings, from theme parties to men’s and ladies’ events. A fitness center, which will include a pool, and outdoor living spaces with fireplaces and water features, are soon to be completed.

Facts & Stats
A host of services are offered, including periodic monitoring of homes while residents are away and opening and closing of homes for their arrival and departure. Referrals for gardeners, housecleaners and craftsmen are also available.  (Click image to enlarge)

A 3-acre private park offers basketball, tennis courts and barbecue pavilions. A fitness center and pool are being built within the park.

Homesites range from 1 to 5 acres and are priced from $300,000 to more than $1.5 million. To date, 115 of the 197 homesites have been sold.

Whisper Rock Estates
480.575.8600

Yellowstone Club
The best of both worlds—family and hard-core golf—come together at the Yellowstone Club, lumber tycoon Tim Blixseth’s four-season development in Big Sky, Mont. Billed as the world’s only private ski and golf community, the 13,400-acre development is neighbor to Yellowstone National Park.

Residents can master the newly opened Tom Weiskopf–designed, 7,200-yard, par-2 championship golf course set against the Gallatin Mountains. The views of the surrounding four ranges, including Andesite Mountain, are nothing short of spectacular, thanks to the course’s average elevation of 7,500 feet. (Click image to enlarge)

When the golf course closes down, skiing season is in full swing, with 40 powder trails that drop 2,700 vertical feet over more than 2,000 acres. Yellowstone Club’s two peaks interconnect with Big Sky Ski Resort and Moonlight Basin Ski Area for a total of 7,000 acres of skiing terrain.

Yellowstone Club offers 864 exclusive residential properties, and membership is by invitation only. Many Phase I homes will have direct views of Yellowstone National Park and the Gallatin Mountains, or Pioneer and Cedar mountains. Phase II Ridge homesites are at 8,000 feet with views of Lone Peak; most homeowners will be able to ski in and ski out from their front door.  (Photo by Jeanine Hennebry, click to enlarge)

Facts & Stats
With availability projected for summer 2005, Sunrise Ridge multifamily condominiums will offer 3,100 to 3,300 square feet of living space.

In fall 2005, duplex-style, ski-in/ski-out condominiums from 4,000 to 5,000 square feet will open at the Enclave at Miller Pointe.

The 110,000-square-foot Warren Miller Lodge, at the base of Pioneer Mountain, will house condos, a dining room, ballroom and exercise room.

Homesites on Andesite Ridge range from 2 to nearly 6 acres, offer views and/or ski-in/ski-out access, and are priced from $1.1 million.

The Pioneer Mountain Chalets offer between 4,800 and 5,900 square feet of living space and start at $4.2 million.

Ranches of 160 acres or more start at $8 million.

Custom residences are priced between $3 million and $9 million. 

Yellowstone Club
888.700.7748
www.theyellowstoneclub.com